I Shot Him Because His Name Incensed Me

…I was reminded of a conversation with a major in the Indian army whom I met at a friend’s place in Delhi, recounting how he killed a Kashmiri driver during a routine check because he was incensed at the driver’s Muslim name and how this was listed as yet another “encounter” death. That was about eight or nine years ago at the height of the BJP’s rule at the center. Gruesome as it was listening to his slow- motion account of that “encounter”, what struck me at that time was that the man felt no shame or remorse. Instead there was a sense of bravado. That was the first such “encounter” he had had and remembered it as one would remember a first love.

This major went on to join the elite Black Cat commando force set up to counter terrorism.